Friday, July 16, 2010

Five Doctor Appointments Two Days

Todd and I went to Indy last week and meet with several docs. The first visit was with a reconstruction doctor. It was explained to me that because of the type of treatment I have had I only have two options for reconstruction. Option one the doc takes your back muscles and flip it around to make your new breast. It is a four to five hour surgery then three to four days of recovery in hospital and then four to five week recovery at home. Option two DIEP the doc takes your stomach skin and fat (giving you a tummy tuck in the process) and literally sews it on to your chest using microsurgery. This surgery is an eight hour process, then five days in the hospital and six weeks of recovery at home. Then a few months later after swelling goes down you get your real one fixed to match your new one. Plus later you get a nipple put on. He was really nice and Todd and I appreciated his honesty. We have a long time to think about it because I can’t even start the process til January. Right now I think I may wait for a while because I want to be able to play with my kids.


The second stop was my mammogram on my left breast. I was really nervous about this. The Doc came and told me it was good. Thank goodness. The third stop was with Doc Kennedy. She did a physical exam and also explained to me about the importance of watching and doing a self exam on my right side. The last person we meet with was a nurse for a survivor meeting. The nurse talked to Todd and me about how to handle the different feelings and symptoms I was having from the chemo and radiation. She gave us all of my medical records for the last year and a book on what to do now that I am almost done with treatment book.

I felt relieved after talking with her because one of the issues I have had is a problem with word recall and short term memory. I literally will be having a conversation and will stop saying something because I can’t remember the word I want to say. But I am not crazy!!! It is normal for this to happen…which makes me feel so much better.

The next day I meet with my oncologist and had a treatment. This is the first time I felt unlucky in my room placement; I got stuck with an older women who was sleeping so well she was snoring!!!! It was so loud I started laughing and she still did not wake up. Oncologist said things are going well. She hooked me up with a counselor to help me deal with my issues of fear and sadness.

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